Conventionally, there is an apparatus including a camera mounted in a vehicle in order to monitor the blind spot of the vehicle. As examples of techniques of this type, there are those disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 identified below.
A vehicle drive assisting apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is configured such that an in-vehicle camera capable of photographing the peripheral area of a vehicle, a light guiding means for guiding light from a photographic subject present at a position deviated from the optical axis of the in-vehicle camera to a photo detector of the in-vehicle camera, are housed in a light-transparent cover of a vehicle lamp unit. With this configuration, it is possible to photograph each of the left and right sides of the vehicle reflected in the light guiding means provided inside the transparent covers by the single in-vehicle camera.
A vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2 includes a reflector mirror disposed in front of a lamp unit for illuminating the outside of the vehicle and having a non-planar face, a photographing device having a lens face receiving light through the reflector mirror for photographing the periphery condition of the vehicle, and an incidence preventing means for preventing the irradiated light from the lamp unit from entering the photographing device when the lamp unit is lit. The incidence preventing means is provided in an optical path along which the irradiated light from the lamp unit travels through the reflector mirror to reach the photographing device. With this arrangement, it is made possible to photograph the blind spot portion of the vehicle, with preventing the irradiated light from passing toward the photographing device.